The trooper's actions saved her life.

"I don't remember the bus hitting me, I don't remember the people getting off the bus," Michelle, 25, told KOMO 4 News from her hospital bed Saturday. "I don't remember the State Trooper."

Michelle doesn't know the people who got off the bus to try and help her, but she knows there was one person in particular who went to extreme measures to make sure she lived -- Captain Steve Sutton with the Washington State Patrol.

"The bystanders that helped out were definitely key to the whole thing," said Captain Sutton. "They alerted me to the problem, and they helped me with the problem."

Captain Sutton was on his way to work Thursday morning and happened to be nearby when the crash happened. He was the one who performed CPR on Michelle until medics arrived.

"He wasn't just on his way to work that morning, he was on his way to help me," said Michelle. "He doesn't know it and I didn't know it, but God put him there...Traffic was backed up, the freeway was completely closed, but yet he was able to get through to me."

Captain Sutton was in the right pace at the right time.

"It sounds kind of cliche, but I did see kind of like light and then I heard the sound of the helicopter," remembered Michelle.

While Michelle was fighting for her life, her father drove past the accident scene on his way to Seattle. He had no idea his daughter was one of the victims.

"I never realized that I was 300 feet away from my daughter," said Michael Hanks in disbelief.

Michelle, and her family are now thankful for the simple things in life. After a long surgery Friday night, she just regained control of her legs, and can now move her hands.

"I can push myself up. So, it's a complete turn around, God is definitely on my side," she said with a big smile.

As she continues her recovery, Michelle knows she will always have a special place in her heart for Captain Sutton -- the man who saved her life.

"He wasn't called. He took it upon himself to stop and help me," Michelle said through her tears of gratitude, "and I just want to thank him for that."